Good afternoon! Marisol here with a Photoshop tutorial. Hooray!

Since summer vacation began, I’ve had the opportunity to draw more and experiment with new Photoshop brushes. Previously, I shared some of the drawings I did using some of these new brushes, but those images were on a smaller scale, so it may have been difficult to see the effects. As mentioned before, one of my favorite brushes is the downloadable skin texture brush, simply because the brushes make skin appear more porous, eliminating the smooth airbrushed look that Photoshopped skin usually has. Here’s how to draw textured skin using skin texture brushes.

1) Color the entire skin area with a base color. Use a regular Photoshop airbrush brush to complete this.

2) Move your cursor over to the brush selection menu and click on the two small arrows that are to the right. Find where it says “Load Brushes” and open the menu. Find the folder titled “Skin Texture Photoshop Brushes” and open it. The brushes have loaded into the brush selection menu.

3) Create a new layer from your “Layer” menu. Move over to the color selection at the bottom lefthand corner. Choose a shade that is one to two shades darker than the skin color you chose as your base. In the brush selection menu, pick skin brush 91 (the second brush on the list), and increase the size of this brush to 291px or larger.

4) Change the brush opacity to 80%. Move the brush lightly over the skin base color so you create a slightly mottled appearance. You now have the look of pores on the skin. Cool, huh?

5) Take your blur tool and change the opacity to 45%. Lightly run the blur tool over the mottled skin in order to smooth it a bit so the skin doesn’t look heavily freckled. The skin base is now complete.

6) Create a new layer and call it “Dark Shading.” Determine where your shadows will be. Choose another skin texture brush from the brush selection menu and adjust the size to meet your needs. I like to start with the lightest darks then move up to the really dark tones, but you don’t necessarily have to do this. If you do, choose a dark shade that’s four times darker than the base color. Use this tone all along the shadowed areas you wish to have. Next, move onto your darker tone which should be one to two shades darker than the first dark tone you used. Place the darker tones where you feel they need to be. Finally, pick an even darker shade for the dark tones and place those where you deem necessary. Notice how the brushes created a dappled appearance? This is what you want.

7) Take your blur tool and keep the opacity at 45% or lower. Lightly brush over the dark tones to create a smoothly blended appearance.

Create a new layer and call it “Light Tones.” Choose a skin texture brush and an almost white shade of the color you used for the skin base. Determine where your light source is and add the light shades based on this. Again, use the blur tool to smooth your edges.

And tada! You’ve created a skintastic skin appearance!

Wasn’t that easy? I hope so. Happy drawing!

Mari

Tags: Art Tutorial, How to Draw Skin, Photoshop Brushes, Photoshop Tutorial, Photoshopping Skin, Skin Texture Photoshop